Agenda and minutes

(Where a Councillor has a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest the Councillor must declare the interest to the meeting and leave the room without participating in any discussion or making a statement on the item, except where a Councillor is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of dispensation).

Councillor Biggadike declared an interest in agenda item 8 in his capacity as a private landlord and advised that he would leave the meeting during discussion of information relating to Private Sector Housing.

To sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2022 (copy enclosed).

As Councillor Bingham was the only member of the Committee present who had been in attendance at the last meeting held on 28 July 2022, it was agreed that the minutes be considered and signed at the next meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee.

An update on actions which arose at the 28 July 2022 Governance and Audit Committee meeting including the tracking of previous outstanding actions (enclosed).

Updated responses to Actions which arose at the Governance and Audit Committee meeting on 28 July 2022 were presented to the Committee.

It was noted that all actions from the meeting had been addressed.

AGREED:

That the Actions from the Governance and Audit Committee meeting held on 28 July 2022 be noted.

To provide an update on the Council’s strategic risks for the period 1st April 2022 to 30th June 2022 (report of the Assistant Director – Governance enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director–Governance which provided an update on the Council’s strategic risks for the period 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022.

Members were advised that as part of the annual risk register review, alongside the formation of the South and East Lincolnshire Partnership a complete review of South Holland District Council’s strategic risk register had been undertaken.  Where appropriate, certain risks had moved to registers monitored at an operational level and new risks had been added to the register to ensure the strategic risk register captured all of the organisation’s key risks/threats to achieving its strategic objectives.  An overview of key changes to the register when compared to the last period (Quarter 4) was included within the report.

Officers advised that risk 5 (Towns Fund) had been included within the register in error and would be removed from the next version of the Risk Register.

Members’ attention was drawn to the following key high-level risks:

·         Failure to deliver demands for support with housing advice and homelessness;

·         Risk of the Council’s ICT infrastructure being severely impacted as a result of a cyber incident;

·         Supporting recovery from Covid19 for the local economy – people and businesses.

Members considered the report and the following points were raised:

·         One of the changes to the Risk Register was the moving of Technology Infrastructure Failure to the operational Risk Register – members felt that it was too soon to remove it from the Strategic Risk Register.

·         In view of recent IT failures, it was felt that the Likelihood score of 2 against the Technology Infrastructure failure risk was too low.

·         Members commented that external factors had to be taken into account however, more and more use was being made of technology and it was important to look at the various IT systems that the Authority had in place to ensure that the impact of any failures was reduced.

·         It was noted under the risk ‘Housing Team Resources and Support’ that the Homeless Reduction Team currently had 5 vacancies that were being recruited to – had the staffing situation now improved?

·         Had Risk 4 ‘Changes to Council’s strategic partnership arrangements’ been added as a matter of course or were there any extenuating circumstances? 

To provide an update on the Treasury Management position for Q1 2022/23 (report of the Interim Treasury and Investments Manager (PSPSL) enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Interim Treasury and Investments Manager (PSPSL) which provided an update on the Treasury Management position for Q1 2022/23.

The Q1 Treasury Management Report was attached at Appendix A, and covered the following areas:

·         An economic update for the first quarter of the 2022-23 financial year;

·         The outlook for the remainder of the financial year along with interest rate forecasts;

·         A review of the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy;

·         A review of the Council’s investment portfolio for 2022-23;

·         A review of the Council’s borrowing strategy for 2022-23;

·         Debt rescheduling; and

·         Compliance with Treasury and Prudential indicators.

The report referred to a key element of the Council’s Governance Framework and represented an important contribution to the evidence trail in support of the Annual Governance Statement 2022/23.

Members were advised that Treasury Management Reports would now be provided on a quarterly basis.

Members considered the report and the following points were raised:

·         In response to members questioning whether the Council’s borrowings of £67.456million at a rate of 3.48% (Section 5 – Borrowing) was a fixed rate, it was confirmed that it was.  Members requested that this be specified in future reports.

AGREED:

That the information detailed within the report be noted.

To present the unaudited Financial Statements including Narrative Report and Draft Annual Governance Statement for the Committee’s review, in line with best practice (report of the Deputy Chief Executive Corporate Development enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Deputy Chief Executive -  Corporate Development which presented the unaudited Financial Statements including Narrative Report and Draft Annual Governance Statement for the Committee’s review, in line with best practice.

The Financial Statements production was complete, and shown at Appendix A was the unaudited version of the 2021/22 Financial Statements (this included the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement, Movement in Reserves Statement, and Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2022, along with the Annual Governance Statement).

The timescales involved with the approval, inspection and audit of the Council’s Financial Statements for 2021/22 were:

·         S151 Officer signed Statements – 30 July 2022

·         Accounts available for Public inspection from – 31 July 2022

·         Audit by Ernst and Young commences – 12 September 2022

·         Unaudited Financial Statements to Committee – 22 September 2022

·         Financial Statements approved by Committee – To be confirmed

·         Auditor’s opinion on Statements issued by – To be confirmed

The Accounts had been prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice and the Council’s accounting policies, which were brought to the Committee in March 2022.  The draft Annual Governance Statement was presented within the unaudited Financial Statements.

The major changes in the Balance Sheet at the year end, considered significant enough to warrant specific reference were detailed within section 2.6 of the report.

Members were advised of the following errors:

·         Within section 2.7 of the covering report, SHDC’s share of PSPS Ltd was stated as 24% - the figure should be 28%;

·         Within the appendix, the pie charts on page 82 of the agenda pack were incorrect – the correct versions would be included in the final version

Members considered the report and the following points were raised:

·         Members commented that a Task Group looking at the operation of the South Holland Centre had recently concluded – would any of the financial information relating to this be included within these accounts?

·         Members commented that it was encouraging that the unaudited financial statements had been completed on time, despite external pressures.

·         Members referenced the training on the unaudited financial statements that had been due to take place earlier in the month, and requested that a new date for this be arranged and that explanation of public sector accounting be included.

AGREED:

That the unaudited Financial Statements 2021/22, including the Annual Governance Statement, be noted.

To examine the progress made between 1 April 2022 and 12 September 2022 in relation to the completion of the Internal Audit Plan for 2022/2023 including an update on Internal Audit Recommendations (report of the Head of Internal Audit enclosed).

The Homelessness Reduction and Private Sector Improvement Manager will be in attendance to provide the Committee with a verbal update on progress made towards the Housing Internal Audit recommendations.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Internal Audit which asked the Committee to examine the progress made between 1 April 2022 and 12 September 2022 in relation to the completion of the Internal Audit Plan for 2022/23. The report also included an update on Internal Audit Recommendations.

The Head of Internal Audit advised that this was the final report to come forward on behalf of Eastern Internal Audit Services, prior to Lincolnshire Audit taking over the internal audit function. 

The Head of Internal Audit introduced the report and the following points were highlighted:

·         The audit plan had been split to take account of the change in internal auditor halfway through the year;

·         During the period covered by the report, two reports had been issued in final – Procurement and Contract Management (Reasonable Assurance); and Economic Growth (Substantial Assurance).

·         One audit from 2021-22 was reported as outstanding at the July meeting.  Performance Management had now been finalised, resulting in Reasonable assurance with one Important and three Needs Attention recommendations raised and agreed with management.  The Executive Summary of this report was attached at Appendix 3.

·         Appendix 2 provided a high-level summary of the auditor’s findings;

·         Appendix 4 provided a high-level summary of the status of agreed Internal Audit recommendations

Members were advised that no updates had been received in time for inclusion within the report at Appendix 5 around Housing Needs, Allocations, Homelessness and Housing Register, and the Homelessness Reduction and Private Sector Improvement Manager was therefore in attendance to provide the following verbal update on the outstanding Internal Audit recommendations:

Housing Needs, Allocations, Homelessness and Housing Register

·         Recommendation 1 (Important) – Full assessments of homelessness applications be completed as soon as possible after the application is received.  Performance in this regard should be monitored to ensure that applications are assessed within a pre-determined timescale.

·         Recommendation 2 (Important) – All decision letters to be uploaded to the relevant case.

·         Recommendation 3 (Important) – Personal Housing Plans be created and regularly updated for all homelessness cases accepted by the Council.

(Councillor Biggadike left the meeting at this point, prior to the discussion on Private Sector Housing).

Private Sector Housing

·         Recommendation 1 (Urgent) – For a report to be designed in Assure that allows for a list to be produced of all HMOs showing a full audit trail of the inspection history and the date the next inspection is due.  This report to be run regularly and reviewed by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

To set out the Work Programme of the Governance and Audit Committee (report of the Assistant Director – Finance enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Finance which set out the Work Programme of the Governance and Audit Committee.

AGREED:

That the report and content of the Work Programme be noted

There were none.